Rafael Zabaleta

RAFAEL ZABALETA FUENTES (Quesada, Jaén, 1907 - 1960).
"In the museum".
Ink on paper.
Signed and dedicated in the lower margin.
Measurements: 18 x 13 cm; 31,5 x 29 cm (frame).

Rafael Zabaleta studied in the Superior School of Fine Arts of San Fernando, and in 1932 he participates for the first time in a collective exhibition, the one of the students of this school. Three years later he made his first trip to Paris, where he met and studied the works of the masters of contemporary painting. In 1937 he was appointed delegate of the National Artistic Treasury. At the end of the war he was imprisoned, after which he settled in Madrid in 1940. Two years later he held his first solo exhibition at the Biosca Gallery in the capital, after being rejected at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. However, the following year he took part in the First Salón de los Once and became a member of the Academia Breve de Crítica de Arte de Eugenio d'Ors, taking part in most of its Salones de los Once and anthological exhibitions. In 1945 he takes part in the collective exhibition "Floreros y bodegones" held at the National Museum of Modern Art, while he continues to exhibit individually and collectively in galleries in Madrid. In 1947 he holds his first personal exhibition in Barcelona, at the Argos Gallery, and his first monograph is published. Two years later he travels again to Paris, coming into contact with Picasso, Óscar Domínguez, M. Ángeles Ortiz and others. The year of his definitive consecration will be 1951, when he holds a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid. In 1955 he obtained the UNESCO Prize at the Hispano-American Biennial in Barcelona. That same year he participates in the Biennial of the Mediterranean held in Alexandria, and holds a solo exhibition in Bilbao. During his last years Zabaleta will be an artist already fully recognized, invited to the most important exhibitions and salons both in Spain and in foreign cities of the importance of Paris. The most important collection of his work is in the Zabaleta Museum of Quesada, although it is also present in the most prestigious museums of the world, in cities such as Buenos Aires, New York or Tokyo.